Large-scale disturbance of the solar wind by a comet

Model calculations for the
interaction of the solar wind with a comet
are presented that extend 30 million
km into the tail. It is shown that the disturbance of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF)
(the draping) is limited to timescales of 10 to 50 hours and length scales of
10 to 50 million km. This is supported by a theoretical argument about the
acceleration of the cometary ions. The distribution of ions and protons
at the end of the model tails agrees with measurements made by Ulysses far in
the tail of comet Hyakutake. It is shown that the ion tail is concentrated
in the current sheet between two flux lobes as long as the draping persists.
The far tail, however, is flat and concentrated in a plane parallel to the IMF.

Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.

Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.